Thursday, 18 May 2017

I wrote ‘The Art of the Deal’ with Trump. His self-sabotage is rooted in his past.

Trump showing off "The Art of the Deal" early in the primary campaign

Well, this article on Trump's character and motivations is absolutely fascinating!

By Tony Schwartz, the guy that co-wrote Trump's 1985 best-seller, "The Art of the Deal". Or, as Schwartz said in a 2015 Tweet: "I wrote The Art of the Deal. Trump read it". Which is pretty funny. And believable. One of the few books that Trump has read: his own ghost-written autobiography.

By his own admission Trump doesn't read books. He is profoundly incurious. Why, he doesn't even read his briefing notes: The New York Times International says today "... that "Mr Trump [is] a hasty and indifferent reader of his briefing materials...". Which is the reason he got into hot water revealing state secrets to the Russians earlier this week. (Trump of course doesn't see that he is in hot water, or if there's any blowback that it's in any way his fault. Schultz's article points out how nothing is ever Trump's fault).

I came across Tony Schwartz via his interview on CNN this morning. As discussion swirls about the appointment of ex-FBI director Robert Mueller as Special Counsel to investigate the "Russia thing" (Trump's words), and issues related -- a lot of which will be about fired NSA director Michael Flynn, his Russian and Turkish connections and why Trump allegedly asked Comey to halt the FBI investigation into Flynn. So much going on.

And to think that on November 7 I was lamenting that with the election the 8th, all the fun, the twists and turns of the campaign would finish! It was only just beginning.

Note in the article how Trump boasts that he's the same now as he was as a six year old: “When I look at myself in the first grade and I look at myself now,” he told a recent biographer, “I’m basically the same.” His development essentially ended in early childhood.
Why would one boast about that? Unless one were a... well... an idiot.

Much is explained by Schwartz's article.

Related: "When the World is Led by a Child". NYT. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/15/opinion/trump-classified-data.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region&region=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region&_r=1

"...it is the duty of those who have accepted Islam to strive unceasingly to convert or subjugate those who have not. This obligation is without limit of time or space. It must continue until the whole world has either accepted the Islamic faith or submitted to the power of the Islamic state."

-- Bernard Lewis, renowned historian of Islam and the Middle East, in The Political Language of Islam, p72-3.

In other words:

"Islam is unique among religions of the world in having a developed doctrine, theology and legal system that mandates warfare against unbelievers."